Wake-and-bake' pot smoker arrested near Ferndale school, cops say

A Detroit teen who tried to register for classes at a Ferndale alternative high school was arrested after police say he resisted an officer and assaulted a neighborhood woman as he fled from police.

Police said the teen, who was a student last year at the Taft Digital Learning Center, 427 Allen, smelled of marijuana and struggled with a police liaison officer at an entrance to the school about 11 a.m. Tuesday.

After the 18-year-old was arrested police said he told them he wasn’t carrying any marijuana but smoked pot each morning.

“He said it was part of his daily morning ritual of ‘wake-and-bake,’ ” said Ferndale Police Lt. William Wilson.

The school has a rule that doesn’t allow anyone in the doors later than 10 a.m. Police said an officer assigned to the school told the teen the entrance was restricted but he walked by her anyway.

“He reeked of marijuana and both his hands were in his pockets,” Wilson said. “The officer tried to investigate to see if he had any weapons or drugs.”

As the officer started to search the suspect, he struggled and broke away, running out the door facing Gardendale Street and jumping through backyards to get onto Flowerdale Street a block away, police said.

A Ferndale woman, 50, told police she was in her yard when she saw the suspect in her backyard and asked him what he was doing there.

“The suspect grabbed her by the shoulders and pushed her, causing her to cut her head on a birdhouse attached to a tree in her yard,” Wilson said.

The suspect ran off but was spotted and arrested by police on Flowerdale Street, police said.

The woman’s injuries were minor and she treated them herself.

Ferndale police are seeking charges against the suspect of assault and battery against the Ferndale woman, and resisting and obstructing the Ferndale officer assigned to the school.

The Taft Digital Learning Center is a high school for students who have dropped out of high school and are returning or have been kicked out of other high schools.